Tag Archives: Pelfrey

Mike Pelfrey was hit hard early, but stabilized and Manny Acosta made sure the game was out of reach in the Mets 8-1 loss to the Rangers.

Game Notes

Mike Pelfrey went six innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, walking two and striking out three. Big Pelf gave up three of those runs in the first inning, and after that seemed to get his bearings and keep the Rangers to one run over the next five innings. As noticed, Pelfrey has allowed more HR this season then he has all last season, as evidenced by his love affair with his four-seam fastball. While this isn’t a horrible Pelfrey outing, giving up three in the first inning is a bit demoralizing.

Manny Acosta came out, decided that he likes allowing XBH to righties, specifically doubles and then home-runs to light-hitting utility men. Acosta went one and two-third innings, allowing four runs on five hits walking two and striking out one giving up two home runs. Acosta, for the most part has been atrocious this year. He has allowed more runs than innings pitched, and more hits while only striking out four. A trip to Buffalo seems in the cards, maybe upon the return of Taylor Buccholz. D.J. Carrasco got the last out of the eighth.

The offense was stifled by Matt Harrison, consistently struggling to make solid contact. Their only run was scored when Ronny Paulino doubled, advanced to third on a Daniel Murphy IF single and then scored on a Ruben Tejada single to center.

Jose Reyes – 0 for 3 with a walk. Grounded into a DP on a laser beam that Adrian Beltre ate up. Jose is beginning to hit the ball into the air a lot more, and that is when trouble ensues.

Scott Hairston – 0 for 3 – two fly outs (barely leaving the infield) and a tailor-made GIDP. With the Mets carrying six OF’s (Pridie, Pagan, Bay, Beltran, Harris, Hairston) how much longer until Hairston gets the axe?

Turning Point

Manny Acosta doing his best impersonation of a bad pitcher. Or, himself. Either/Or.

Game Ball

Jason Bay – 3 for 4 with a strikeout. They may be singles, but contact is contact. At some point, these singles may become doubles. Baby steps.

On Deck

The Mets will head into tomorrow to face Rangers righty Alexi Ogando and will send out Jon Niese. Game time is 4:10 PM. In other notes, I wonder how the Mets will respond to the intense Texas hit in the middle of the day.

The easy thing to do would be credit this afternoon’s startling comeback on Terry Collins’ blistering rant last night.

Maybe Collins shamed them somewhat, but it didn’t seem that way from the outset when Mike Pelfrey gave it up early. I think falling behind 7-0 had more to do with sparking the Mets than anything Collins said last night.

When you’re a professional athlete, sometimes it takes being pushed around to catch your attention, and that’s what happened today. Maybe for one day at least, enough was enough.

Pelfrey did nothing yesterday to prove he’s a No. 1 starter, but Carlos Beltran showed his mettle with a three-run homer hit early enough in the game to make a comeback a realistic thought.

After their early hole, the Mets played an aggressive, sound game, something they should be doing all the time. That was the essence of Collins’ message in the first place.

It’s an oversimplification to say Collins going off carried the Mets. If it was that easy, he’d rail all the time. In baseball, where they play 162 games, results are rarely attained by yelling.

Maybe the Mets were just due today. Maybe it was playing the Pirates, a team as Willie Harris said, “is not much better than them.’’

The Mets have had games like this before, but weren’t able to build on them. This weekend it’s the Braves coming in and we’ll see if the Mets are able to feed off today or just burp and regress.

It is a match-up not in the best interest of the Mets. Josh Johnson against Mike Pelfrey pits Florida’s ace against the Mets’ No. 1, but the numbers clearly favor the Marlins.

PELFREY: Fish not his dish.

Johnson (3-1, 1.63 ERA) is 8-1 with a 2.73 ERA lifetime over 13 starts against the Mets. Pelfrey, meanwhile, won the first start of his career against the Marlins, but has lost his last seven decisions.

After a slow start, Pelfrey is coming off back-to-back victories over San Francisco and Colorado.

The Mets aren’t helped any with Ike Davis on the disabled list and David Wright out with a stress fracture in his lower back.

Wright’s injury tempers the momentum of winning three straight series.

Mike Pelfrey goes tonight against Colorado, a team he’s enjoyed a good amount of success against. Pelfrey is 5-2 with a 2.91 ERA lifetime against Colorado, where he is 2-1 with a 3.24 ERA.

Pelfrey gives the Mets a legitimate chance to win, but he needs some support, and that means Jason Bay and David Wright. Both, when hot, have the capability of carrying a ream for a week or two, but neither has proven to get hot with power for any extended period.

And, if there’s any park where you can get the power going is Coors Field.

Just because Mike Pelfrey is feeling better doesn’t mean he will pitch better. There’s been very little about Pelfrey this season that suggests he’ll come up with a big performance today against the San Francisco Giants.

PELFREY: We've seen Pelfrey doing a lot of head scratching this season.

Pelfrey has been a disappointment after taking a positive step forward last summer. In his last start at Philadelphia, he pitched after losing 11 pounds because of the flu and never should have been out there.

But, he hasn’t been sick all spring. Pelfrey is laboring too much on the mound with command and pitch selection. He isn’t working quickly, which is what he did last year when he was effective. Instead, he’s back to being deliberate, which smacks of indecisiveness and a withering confidence.

Pelfrey has failed to go five in three of six starts. He’s walking too many hitters and doesn’t have the command of his sinker, regardless of the count.

Pelfrey has minor league options remaining, and with another poor start this afternoon, there could be discussions about whether he needs to take time for some fixing in the minors.